Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-01
Objections to High License.
Editor Vtndicato1' i.

Your assertion, Mr.. Editor, that high license
reduces the number of saloons may be true
with regard to some places, but it has had di-
rectly the opposite effect in other places. 1t
7ae0er has lessened drunkenness or CRIME. l
have before me an instance out of dozens I
might quote, that of Charleston. Ill, a small
place of 500 Inhabitants. s'Under the old $500
license there were four saloons; under an
$500 license, there are now eight. The two
richest saloon-keepers, Latta & Land1s, and
Gromesby, tried to induce the City Council to
put the license up to 81, 500, upon the assump-
ton that this would freeze out the small fry
qeit1t0ut decreasing the saloon patronage. The
citizens seeing the failure of high license
have petitioned the council to give them the
privilege OF voting upon prohibition" The
number of saloons has been reduced in high
license Chicago, but those that have been
compelled to close have been the least objec-
tionable, and drunkenness and crime have in
creased to an alarming extent, and in a much
greater ratio than the increase in population,
I as the following extracts taken from the po-
lice reports will show: In 1928, under
, low license there were, 3, $40 saloons and 3d.
800 total arrests of which 1S,045 were for
for drunkenness. In 1856 there were $3.50
saloons and 40, 99S total arrests, of which
| Is, 407 were for drunkenness, an increase of
81 per cent. in crime, while the population
only increased IA per cent" How does this
showing compare with Prohibition Provi-
| dence, where for the first six months of Pro-
| hibition, arrests for drunkenness decreased 40
| per cent. 2 | could refer you to numbers of
instances to prove that high-license has not
| diminished the number of saloons, Kansas
! City, for instance in high-hcense Missouri,
| which requires q license of SS45, has 405
IL H. 81
| Wyandotte, just across the river. is Prohi6i-
| ton. Kansas has not saloon. In the State
of Missouri the license is $S45, yet in 1886
| there were 6. 34S saloons against 1912 IN 1880
| under low-license; this, Notwithstanding the
fact that one-half of the counties OF the State
are under Prohibition through local-option
law (passed about the same time as the high
| license law and have not saloon within
| their borders. Is this showing for temper
ance advocates of high license to boast of as
a means of suppressing the liquor traffic
DR.. John Halls son, editor of the christian
Home" Omaha, Neb..) says 'High License
| is in Omaha absolute failure save in the
one miserable feature of its blood stained reve-
| nue., 1t has not closed the most dangerous
saloons, and has not mitigated one solitary
feature of the disastrous traffic" The last
saloon keeper had disappeared from pro7tidi-
ton Sioux City, Iowa, and gone to High
| A1iSSAAoS Otlb11ts,
damning souls. In Lincoln, Neb., the license
fee is $1,000, and there are numbers of no
| license saloons. bride of 500 not only
| blinds but gags the average policeman and
| the saloon saves 5000 1t is id to be much
cheaper to debauch the public officials than
! to pay the license" Hon. J. B. Finch, who
drafted and urged this law through the legis-
lature now says, God save New York from
this high license madness! 1t was the bitter
| act iDf Of tba act
| blunder | ever committed. 1t placed the bus
mess in the hands of sharper class of scoun-
J drels-men who had both brain and money
to give organization to this villainy. 1t is
| now an organized, compact and thoroughly en-
trenched business. It pays the taxes of the
| town, and this silences the consciences of the
| citizens" 1t seems to bear the same effect on
| the consciences of some of our Citizens"
| And now, Mr.. Editor, l ask in all candor,
if high license will do what y0u claim for it,
why is it that so many counties and towns in
high license Missouri and Illinois have resor-
| ted to local option and driven the high license
saloons with all their blessings CD from their
| midst? Surely the people in these high license
States are more competent to judge of its eff
cacy as preventive of drunkenness than the
| people where it has never been tried
But suppose it should decrease the number
| of saloons and make them more respectable"
Gor you choose to use that word in perver-
ted sense) m1y boy might be one of the few (?)
allured and entrapped by carved woods, and
| easy lounges with rich upholsteries and paint
ing beautiful to the eye. Could dny license
be made htqh enough to cover the l0aoest esti-
mate I place upon him? To support one
liquor saloon at least twenty families are
pinched and made miserable to keep up the
| bright, warm fire at one saloon, many little
ones are chilled and starving in bare rooms or
! dark garrets. To make one landlord or land
| lady, pursy and stout and well dressed many
| children are made ragged and many mothers
| despairing.
Dr. Cuyler truly says: "The community
has got to foot these bills in the shape of fami-
| lies impoverished labor destroyed and pau
pers manufactured And yet men talk of
revenue p Christian men talk of raising
revenue through blood.money! Oh! the
| pity of it the shame of it How must the
Aeatteza Emperor Of China who said he would
| never consent to receive revenue at the ex-
| pense of the degradation and woes of his peo-
pie, regard this American Christian nation
| What influence could such Christians have as
missionaries? What influence will such Chris
| tians have over the masses..of the low and ig-
| norant in our own midst? What influence
will such Christians have over men of the
world who are standing off to see on what
side they will array themselves? And I
| believe with Gov. st. John, that for
<oeay dollar we expend to build up through
public schools we invest seueateen to tear
down through the Saloons"
| And now, Mr.. Editor, cannot close with
out saying that if you regard compromising
with the devil" as only sentiment, 1 would have
YOU read what our Book of Books says upon
! this subject: Ps. "a, 20; Prov. Is, 6; Hat. 2,
| ~; LIST Cor. 10, 81 Eph. 6, 1920, and many
other passages to which I might refer, but I
believe "a word to the wise is sufficient and
! God grant we may soon 'haye school house
| upon every hill top and no saloon IN the Fal-
leu 7" A. B. G.